Biography

Brass Venture is one of the most dynamic chamber ensembles on the stage today. Since its inception in 2001, Brass Venture has relentlessly pursued its mission statement: to seek out works that speak to the audience and allow them to experience the vast, varied, and powerful world of great music.

Brass Venture’s goal at every performance is to awaken an emotive response in each listener, drawing content from all eras and styles of music. We hope that each audience member will hear a particular favorite or perhaps be exposed to a less familiar style or composition. Working with composers from renowned schools such as the Juilliard School of Music and the Berklee College of Music, Brass Venture has brought to diverse audiences new music that is both challenging and satisfying to the listener.

Audience members leaving a Brass Venture recital will have heard great music performed with tremendous passion, and have been engaged and entertained. Brass Venture presents each piece with a relaxed and informative introduction designed to make the concert experience enjoyable.

After attending a Brass Venture recital, audience members have been heard to say: “I loved the great music and the entertaining introductions”, “it was inspirational and beautiful” and “it was great how you flawlessly moved from idiom to idiom and remained true to each style…amazing”.

Biography

Brian O’Neill is a versatile multi-percussionist based in New York City and Boston. A “percussion master and musical polymath” (Boston Phoenix), he has performed in a variety of contexts including opera and classical (South Florida Symphony, Boston Festival Orchestra, Arizona Opera Ring Cycle Orchestra, Flagstaff Symphony), as a concert soloist (Sun City Symphony), pop music (Kristin Chenoweth, Donna Summer, Archie Bell, the Del-Larks), and jazz (Bert Seager, Peter Erskine, Wallace Roney, Ernie Watts). While he continues to freelance as an orchestral player and theatre drummer, he has become active in the global music scene performing music from Europe, the Middle East and Latin America regularly. As a multi-percussionist, he performs with his Mexican roots band La Tuza, klezmer-Balkan-Mediterranean hybrid The Klezwoods, The Bert Seager quartet, Mexo-Americana all-stars The David Wax Museum, sephardic trio Aljashu, flamenco guitarist Juanito Pascual and others.

Brian’s musical adventures have brought him to the Montreal Jazz Festival (main stage), Hawaii International Jazz Festival, the prestigious Festival de Mexico, various stages in Japan, The Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. Currently, he leads a “marvelously flexible” ensemble (Boston Globe) called Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica, which is comprised of two unique ensembles: a vibraphone quartet interpreting exotica music from a third-stream perspective, and the world’s only big band performing Brian’s transcriptions of the lost music of Juan Garcia Esquivel, the Mexican arranger and king of space-age-bachelor-pad music. In 2010, his Exotica for Modern Living recording series launched with an homage to Esquivel that received “four stars” from the Sunday Times London and was deemed “deliciously demented and entertaining in equal parts” by the Wall Street Journal. “O’Neill may be, in the long run, a better exoticist than [John] Zorn“äóîAllAboutJazz

As a double agent, Brian is sometimes spotted on his first, and perhaps the most ubiquitous percussion instrumentäóîthe pianoäóîand recently joined the contemporary chamber quartet CORDIS. Keep up with Brian and learn about his addiction to studying global tambourine techniques at crashandboom.com or on Twitter (@orchestrotica).

Biography

The Bristol Chamber Orchestra virtuoso strings, keyboards, woodwinds, brass & percussion perform music of all periods from the Renaissance to the present day. BCO features great soloists & collaborations with choruses & other arts organizations. The professional musicians come from Greater Boston area. Most hold positions in groups such as Boston Ballet, the Boston Lyric Opera, the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Boston Pops and teach at the great musical schools in the area-Boston University, New England Conservatory & Brown University.

The music director, violinist Harris Shilakowsky, has appeared as soloist and/or concertmaster with many orchestras including the New Orleans, Omaha, Charleston Symphony Orchestras, London Symphony and performed with the Boston Pops.

Biography

Bruce Abbott Music offers complete live music and DJ services: Elegant classical music for your ceremony. Swingin’ and smooth jazz for cocktails and dinner. Dance to a live band or choose our “Enhanced DJ Service” augmented by live musicians featuring Bruce Abbott on saxophone with DJ/vocalist Kim Madden. Any blend of live and recorded music is possible! From ceremony through reception, we‘ll help you plan the music to make your wedding sparkle. Visit our website to learn more and listen to sound samples.

Biography

Featuring cello, flute, percussion, piano or guitar and optional brass. We play the music of Pixinguinha, Lacerda and others. We can also play Argentinian Tango and mix in other styles if you like. Please visit website and click “here” and you will see samples of Choros Com Chocolate

Biography

The biological rhythm of day and night is called the circadian rhythm. The Circadian Rhythm Kings is a band which has not stolen its name : they bring highly rhythmic free bop, free funk, free jazz or whatever you name it, alternately, but which immediately appeal to you biological system, and at times it‘s hard to keep from dancing along. Most pieces are based on a regular beat, but some, as “The Early Worm”, are more abstract work-outs, with all instruments more focused on creating an abstract soundscape. The band consists of Andrew Hickman on tenor sax and indigenous wind instruments, Ken Field on alto sax and flute, Todd Brunel on clarinet and bass clarinet, John Funkhouser on double bass and Gary Fieldman on drums. The music is excellent, even really beautiful at times, with bluesy (“The Pen”) and sometimes even middle-eastern influences (“Escape Goat”), but the band is at its best when they funk like hell, like on the last two tracks, on which the front-line of the three reeds creates lots of variation and intertwining melodies and counterpoint, while bass and drums create a beat seldom heard in such an otherwise free environment.http://www.freejazz.org

Providing Boston wedding music in a variety of combinations, most regularly in the form of a duo, trio or quartet. We are not only limited to wedding ceremony music and wedding reception music, but are also available for corporate functions, parties, balls, reunions, funerals or for an elegant evening dinner party.

Biography

The Brass Consortium was founded in 1992 by hornist Jim Mosher and tubist Jim O’Dell, as a brass quintet, to perform c oncerts, ceremonies, recitals, compositional premieres, receptions, weddings, graduations and other special events. The Brass Consortium has a large active repertory of brass quintets, ranging from Renaissance and Baroque to contemporary, jazz and Broadway.

The Brass Consortium has performed throughout New England, including concerts, ceremonies, recitals, graduations and special events. Versatile in its size, the Brass Consrotium expands to large brass ensemble for larger events. Members of the Brass Consortium include some of the most respected and highly-sought musicians in the Boston area.

Biography

Mr. Flonta has performed extensively throughout Europe and North America. Some of the venues include The Berliner Philharmoniker Concert Hall and Chamber Music Hall, The Herodes Atticus Theater in Athens, Greece, The Norwalk Concert Hall, Troy Music Hall and the EMPAC Center in Troy, New York. A native of Romania, Mr. Flonta won an honorable mention at the George Georgescu International Violin Competition in Tulcea, Romania as well as a place at the prestigious Bach Academy Festival in Stuttgart, Germany under the artistic direction of Maestro Helmuth Rilling. In addition, Mr. Flonta was appointed Concert Master and Principal second Violin at several orchestras in Romania, Italy, Spain, Germany and The United States. Mr. Flontaäó»s teaching experience is vast and it includes positions with The Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Academy of Saint Joseph in Manhattan and The New York Conservatory of Music in Manhattan.

Biography

Daniel Beilman, bassoonist and contrabassoonist, has been heard in concert across the USA and Europe in major concert halls including the Royal Concertgebouw, De Doelen, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Sanders Theater, Mechanics Hall, Kentucky Center for the Arts and Santo Domingo’s Teatro Nacional in the Dominican Republic. He has performed regularly with groups in and around Boston including The Boston Philharmonic, Sound Icon, North End Music and Performing Arts Center, Gloriae Dei Artes Foundation, Longwood Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, Muncie Symphony in Indiana and the Boston Civic Symphony. As a teacher he has been in residence with the Fundacion Sinfonia with the National Youth Orchestra for the Dominican Republic and taught privately for many years. He holds a degree in bassoon performance from the Boston Conservatory, has attended Ball State University and is currently attending graduate school at Boston University. His primary teachers include Ronald Haroutunian, Margaret Phillips, Keith Sweger, Roger Soren and Adrian Morejon. In addition to his playing and teaching activities, Daniel enjoys spending time in his garden and baking when he is not busy making reeds for his clients.

Biography

Graduate Diploma with Distinction from the New England Conservatory. Tanglewood Fellowship/Andre Come Memorial Scholarship. Doctorate work in Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Southern Mississippi. Masters work at the University of Louisville in Performance. Bachelors of Music Education from the University of Evansville. Former Principal Trumpet with the Key West Symphony. Has performed with the Boston Symphony and Pops, Baltimore Symphony, Portland Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Ballet, Palm Beach Opera, and the Louisville Symphony.

Biography

Daria Janssen is an active cello soloist, chamber musician, piano accompanist, teacher and scholar. First Prize winner of the 1997 International Music Competition äóěВиртуозы -2000äóť
in St. Petersburg, Russia, 2009 Soloist Competition winner with the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1, winner of 2004 Honors Competition in a trio with Paul Jacobs and Dainius Poudjukas and a Diplomat of the 1998 International Music Competition äóěConcursul International de Muzica Jeunesses Musicalesäóť in Bucharest, Romania, Daria first appeared as a soloist with the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of nine. In 2006, she appeared in the V Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition in Morelia, Mexico and in 1997 she was a semi-finalist in Tchaikovskyäó»s Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Daria began her äóÖcello and piano studies at the age of seven at the Kharkov Special Music Boarding School in Ukraine and, later, in the Preparatory Department of the Longy School of Music, where she was a principal äóÖcellist of the Young Performers Chamber Orchestra, conducted by George Ogata. Daria is in her fifth year as a principal cellist of the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, working under David Hoose, William Lumkin among others. She frequently appears as guest soloist/principal cellist with the Freisinger Chamber Orchestra and is a substitute cellist for the Boston Ballet Orchestra.
Dariaäó»s collaboration with pianist Paul Jacobs started in 2004 and their programs include works by contemporary composers, standard chamber music and concerto repertoire, including premieres of new works by new composers and recordings.
Daria had been collaborating with her husband, composer David C. Janssen, premiering, editing and recording his works as a cellist and pianist, as well as working together with violinists Bayla Keyes, Julia Glenn and violist Xi Yang.
Daria founded member and cellist of the Nocturne String Quartet, which had premiered David Janssenäó»s String Quartet No. 1.
Over the years Dariaäó»s primary cello teachers were professors I. D. Rojavsky, L. S. Nikulina, Terry King, Thomas Kraines, Mihail Jojatu and Marc Johnson. She studied theory and harmony with Judith Ross, Richard Cornell, John Wallace and piano under L.A. Podpalnaya, Philis Asseta and Lyubov Shlain.
Daria took part in master classes with cellists Laurence Lesser, John Kaboff, Natasha Brofsky, Andrew Pearce, Kangho Lee, Joshua Gordon and Natalia Gutman.
Daria holds an Undergraduate Diploma with Distinction in Cello Performance from Longy School of Music, Bachelors of Music degree from Emerson College and Master of Music degree with Honor Award for outstanding achievement in String Performance from Boston University, currently finishing up her Doctorate in Cello Performance at the Boston University.
Dariaäó»s recent projects include the transcription of J.S. Bachäó»s 2nd Violin Partita for Solo-Cello, research work on the Dvořakäó»s Cello Concerto and raising funds to give a grand piano to the Concert Series at the Watertown Free Public Library, which Daria started few years ago.

Biography

Performing vintage R&B, Jump Blues, New Orleans R&B from the mid 40s to the mid 60s. Send an email for youtube links.

For some unexplained reason I‘m not able to upload tracks to this website. Here are a couple of links to a live performance at a restaurant in Worcester recorded this past February 2010 copy and paste them to your browser:

This was recorded July ‘06 at the Brigham Circle Concert Series pictured in the photograph. You can also copy and paste this: